Tag: review
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Monolith Cult – Gospel of Despair
This mid-November doom record nearly passed me by—I hadn’t previously heard of this U.K. outfit, and it’s just their second release. But when I finally got a chance to listen to the music, it grabbed me right away. If you like your traditional-style epic doom served with a side of power metal, complete with a…
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Roadside Bombs – Best of the Best / 45
It’s pretty uncommon for a punk band to publicly praise a music journalist (not that it NEVER happens, just that it doesn’t happen regularly) so when Roadside Bombs doesn’t just praise a critic, they put his face on the A-side of a single and publicly promote him as being “The Best of The Best,” it…
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Weird Owl – Bubblegum Brainwaves LP
Weird Owl is a genuine anomaly in the music industry in several ways: since forming in 2004, the group has not let anything – not lineup changes, not label changes, not changes in focus or sound – deter them from keeping a consistent release schedule. The band’s fifth full-length (sixth release) finds the band nailing…
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Book reviews by Steve Earles, November 2017
Military, Political & Social History Rebellion in the Reign of Charles II Written by Julian Whitehead Published by Pen & Sword History The Restoration is one of the most fascinating periods of history, and certainly a great favourite of mine. King Charles II (known with good reason as the Merry Monarch as is well known from…
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Aggression – live in Toronto, 6 November 2017
Aggression + Domination @ Coalition, Toronto, 6th November 2017 Canada’s thrash metal scene is internationally revered. Few can dispute that this nation disproportionately conceived premier thrash throughout the ’80s: Voivod, Slaughter, Razor, Exciter, Annihilator and Infernäl Mäjesty to name a mere handful. One of the lesser uttered names in this canon is Montreal’s Aggression, formed…
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Throneless – Cycles
This Swedish trio has been compared to Conan, but I detect a slightly more psychedelic sensibility on this, the second album from Throneless. For one thing, the songs are all rather lengthy—the four songs here span 40 minutes, with the shortest one clocking in at six and a half. “Born in Vain” opens the album…
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Clamfight – III
Man, I really dug Clamfight’s second record, which came out almost five years ago. In tr00 none-more-kvlt fashion, they put out a live cassette tape that was limited to 20 copies in 2014, but no one has really heard from them since… until now. Their aptly named third album offers five tracks in just under…
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Butthole Surfers – Locust Abortion Technician 10” EP
At first glance, it’s hard not to smirk a little at the design, intention and construct of the Locust Abortion Technician EP. The Butthole Surfers have broken their decade-long silence with a celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of their Locust Abortion Technician album and, to mark the occasion, they’ve reissued thirty percent (roughly) of the album…
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This Means War – S/T 10” EP
The catch, when it comes to trying to be in a good melodic hardcore band, is that trying to navigate the waters of punk rock is fraught with risk because the region is so over-populated. Unfortunately, there are lots of “melodic hardcore” bands which aren’t particularly melodic (read: the singer can’t carry a tune on…
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WarCall – Invaders
Like a black metal Motorhead or the mutant offspring of New Wave of British Heavy Metal legends Tank, WarCall really live up to their name! Indeed the comparisons with Motorhead and Tank are apt as WarCall are a strong power trio. On this, their fourth album (following ‘Demonarchy’, ‘Blood, Guts and Dirt’, and ‘III’), they show…